Focus

"But it is their choice. Surely they have the right to choose."

How awful must be the experience of rape. On every level of one's multidimensional being. Yet, I fear there is an experience that is far worse. As a culture we recognize it as such. Yet within this same culture we allow our lust for something to overcome our abhorrence of it's deliberate misuse.

Murder. What an awful thing. So much damage does it do; that even the mind of the murderer is altered in a sick and horrifying way. The lives of the victim's who survive are forever marred by the experience. And for those that never got away, the story has a hopeless ending. Yet, because of our tendency to war against each other, murder has taken the backdrop. It is no longer the terrible thing it once was. It has lost so much of its gravity, that we even make exceptions for those we as a culture look up to, even when all evidence points to their actions.

Instead, we have erected a new 'height of depravity:' rape. What a dreadful thing -that a person's lust for power, pain, and self-satisfaction reaches the point of disregard and degradation of another. This is something deeply painful and unsettling. The raw instances of this despicable abuse are beyond count. It truly is something for which we all have a dark regard.

Yet -and this is the painful point of this thought- one person's lust for power, or for choice, does not allow them to abuse or murder another. Those who seek to have their own way and are willing to kill for it are murderers. And so I find myself at this point:

Those who have been raped and find themselves pregnant have a choice; will they choose to forsake the attitude of their attacker or will they accept it. If a woman is raped and chooses to kill the child because it is abhorrent to her, then she is guilty of the same crime as the man who abused her.

This may seem harsh. But know this; if we as a society and as a human race decide that we have the 'right' to choose to kill something we do not want, then we lead ourselves down a deeply troubling and dark path. If a woman may kill her child if she does not want them, then the rapist may rape the woman that he does not care for; the murderer may murder those that he does not like. Those who are strong may always take from the weak if we decide that the weak are something we can dispose of.

We desire to live like animals when we clearly are not.

Women are not crying out for their right to choose but instead their right to kill. If they want it, they will have to bend to the wills of those stronger. If they get it, then we all must bend to the 'rights' of the pedophiles, rapists, murderers, and psychopaths.

If we seek a choice, we have one readily before us, posed in the form of a question:

If it is our choice, and we choose death, then when it comes to us, what will be chosen for us?

Finding

Cold holds the face in a mask of recognition
And heat carries with it the sense of premonition
Then darkness opens the windows to possibility
While light continually exposes insensibility

Life brings and also sings of pure breath
And exhaling is surely the sign of Death
Then peace leads to arrogance and complexity
While war reminisces of humble simplicity

Comfort replaces needs with desire
And pain points out priorities by fire
Then religion guides to service and humility
While intelligence shouts "Hell!" in idiocy

Humour makes light of life's painful process
And Despair forgets the joy that is so obvious
Then science forsakes experiment for philosophy
While poetry has an affair with ethereal misery

There's a Wideness..to Our Depravity

It is rare that I stumble upon a verse to a hymn which I have never seen before. It is even more rare when the verse is from a hymn which is familiar, and in this case, greatly loved by me. Yet, just last week, the verse of this hymn, which is rarely recorded, captured my attention. I thought that it would be good to record it here. I have placed the verse which was intentionally (and wrongfully, I believe) omitted in bold below.

There’s a wideness in God’s mercy,
Like the wideness of the sea;
There’s a kindness in His justice,
Which is more than liberty.

There is no place where earth’s sorrows
Are more felt than up in Heaven;
There is no place where earth’s failings
Have such kindly judgment given.

There is welcome for the sinner,
And more graces for the good;
There is mercy with the Savior;
There is healing in His blood.

There is grace enough for thousands
Of new worlds as great as this;
There is room for fresh creations
In that upper home of bliss.

For the love of God is broader
Than the measure of our mind;
And the heart of the Eternal
Is most wonderfully kind.

There is plentiful redemption
In the blood that has been shed;
There is joy for all the members
In the sorrows of the Head.

’Tis not all we owe to Jesus;
It is something more than all;
Greater good because of evil,
Larger mercy through the fall.

If our love were but more simple,
We should take Him at His word;
And our lives would be all sunshine
In the sweetness of our Lord.

Souls of men! why will ye scatter
Like a crowd of frightened sheep?
Foolish hearts! why will ye wander
From a love so true and deep?

It is God: His love looks mighty,
But is mightier than it seems;
’Tis our Father: and His fondness
Goes far out beyond our dreams.

But we make His love too narrow
By false limits of our own;
And we magnify His strictness
With a zeal He will not own.

Was there ever kinder shepherd
Half so gentle, half so sweet,
As the Savior who would have us
Come and gather at His feet?

Note: When I entered this in my journal, I also had a short piece discussing the ramifications of "editing" history, documents, and quotations. As it could easily have fitted into my previous writing about Truth, I decided to omit it. After I have given it more thought and some more reworking, I think that I will re-post it as a short piece on editing as it interacts with Truth, or known/documented reality.

Unedited Excerpt: Romans Eleven

I do not think that Salvation is something which is granted to nations. I think that grace, mercy, judgement, destruction, and prosperity are given to nations or people groups; but not salvation. Salvation is based on an individual identity falling into submission and step behind another more powerful (and in this case infinite) individual personality.

Beyond that, I see Romans 11 as a classic romance, which could be contrasted with Hosea; while Hosea is constantly trying to win his unfaithful bride with grace, forgiveness, and forbearance in Romans, God is having what I consider to be a much more realistic relationship with Israel (as his first love, or bride) involving Jealous, Envy, and Passion.

God, as displayed in Romans 11 is so jealous that His first bride has turned away from him to other lovers, that He has intentionally sought out the church (His second bride, in a sense) in order to make His first bride envious! (11:11) This is exceptional, for while He is intentionally trying to make His first bride Israel envious, He is attempting to use it to reconcile them to Himself.

Yet, this is where the analogy breaks down.. because if things work out this way, then he will end up with two brides, and I don't think polygamy was the point..

In fact, what God has done (and I really do believe this) is that He has created the most stubborn and difficult people on earth. I believe that they are the Israelites, or more accurately; the Jews. He specifically made this people more stubborn than any other people so that He could woo and win the maximum number of gentiles before Israel would finally repent and return to Him.

Beyond verse 11, verse 32 is, I believe the most powerful thought (after the doxology in verses 33-36) in this chapter. For it displays the astounding fact that God has intentionally "bound" us or "determined" us to be disobedient so that He may show mercy on us. And what makes this simply stunning is that He is seeking the reconciliation of all people to Himself, but He decided that the best way to do that was to bear through the pain of being the first lover of an unfaithful and profoundly stubborn people.

I do think that Israel will be saved. While I originally said that I do not think that salvation is something which is offered to nations, I also do not think that it is offered only to individuals. Salvation can be seen as deliverance from one's self (especially if one is "bound" to be disobedient and unfaithful). Therefore, I believe that God will in the end, be reconciled to His first love, Israel, by allowing them to accept His gift of grace and mercy -but He will not do that until He has brought in "the full number" of Gentiles.

"Being Is"

 living        is

acting       is

believing  is

hoping     is

trusting    is

faith         is

confidence is genuineness is

honesty is truthfulness is

completeness is

wholeness is

purity is

being

is